Iconic NHL player, coach and GM Pat Quinn could do it all, behind the bench and on the ice. And in this story Quinn wrote for THN, he explained his winning coaching approach.
In the late 1970s, the Philadelphia Flyers were a team on the rise. And coach and former star defenseman Pat Quinn was a key reason why, in the 1979-80 season, he led Philadlphia to a record-breaking 35-game unbeaten streak and an appearance in the Stanley Cup final. He won his first Jack Adams Award that season as well, cementing himself as an all-time great both on the ice and behind the bench.
And in December of that season --in The Hockey News' Dec. 21, 1979 issue -- Quinn took the time to write a story for THN. Quinn was his usual eloquent self in the story, which you can read below via The Hockey News Archive:
TIME TO CHANGE STYLE
By Pat Quinn
Perhaps a few people around the NHL are scratching their heads a little this season when they heard that I, who hardly ever was mistaken for a rocket on a pair of skates, want the team I coach, the Philadelphia Flyers, to play a go-go skating game with a great deal of motion and as little stop-and-start, static hockey as possible.
But that’s the trend in the game these days. Hockey has moved away from the grinder style that the Flyers used when they won two consecutive Stanely Cups in the mid-1970s to a skating game that stresses motion and high level in basic skills, such as passing the puck.
The muscle game was fine in its time. But for the past four springs, the Montreal Canadiens have carried the Stanley Cup around the ice after the final game and their style stresses speed and skill.
The Canadiens never abandoned that style although several other clubs changed to a grinder approach. Of course, the Canadiens had players who could grind with anyone if they had to do it. But all their big guys had good speed and skill, too.
Then the Soviets beat the NHL All Stars in the Challenge Cup series last winter with a superb display of skating and skill, especially their passing and receiving passes, their constant motion and the consistent pace they maintained. It was just beautiful hockey to watch.
In our ‘79 playoff series against the New York Rangers, I realized for certain that the Flyers had to change their approach. The Rangers were a fast, finesse team. We tried to use a little muscle on them, picked up penalties that weren’t the smartest sentences in history and placed ourselves in a hole.
Of course, we haven’t tossed out all the features that made the Flyers the NHL kings in 1974 and ‘75. Those clubs played with almost incredible ambition and there wasn’t a single player on the roster who ever bailed out, who wouldn’t take a hit to make a play.
I feel we still have that ability to outwork most teams and to never give up. We’re still a tough team along the boards and in the corners, places where a team can gain important possessions of the puck.
Really, though, the changes in the Flyer approach aren’t of a gigantic nature. When Fred Shero coached the team, there was a certain way he wanted things done and his system was very successful. It was more of a static, stop-and-start style in which the wingers came back into their own zone to a certain spot and stopped, there were similar boundaries in the attacking zone and almost pre-set plays to use in most situations.
This season, we’ve tried a more free-flowing system in which our players are on the move all the time. Our roster contains plenty of good skaters who are strong in the basic skills. That’s made the style-change much easier to acccomplish than if we had to go out and round up a large number of players who were effective in the new way the game is being played.
Hockey always has moved in cycles and, often in the NHL, the Stanley Cup champion’s approach had a big influence on the way the game is played. I just hope we get the opportunity to dictate the style of hockey that’s played in the NHL for the next few seasons.